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Who really owns Unix?

Allen Brown for CNET News.com CNET News

Published: 13 Jun 2003 10:34 BST

Whoever said the first casualty of war is truth would be surprised to find that maxim quoted in a dispute between systems vendors. But it is an apt description of current events.

The SCO Group has started legal proceedings against IBM, an action that has turned into a war of words -- words that very often serve to mislead or confuse. Perhaps it was not intentional, but fear, uncertainty and doubt nevertheless have been the inevitable result.

This concerns The Open Group. Many organisations that procure Unix systems do so in the knowledge that an operating system certified by our organisation to use the Unix trademark conforms -- and will always conform -- to the Single Unix Specification. What's more, they know that if the OS is found not to conform to the specification, it will be rectified by the vendor at no expense to the customer.

Certification of conformity to standards is critical to the efficient operation of the market. Governments are particularly concerned with such certification. It is a little late to find out on the battlefield that a piece of equipment does not meet a supplier's claims of conformity to standards. This is one example of the importance of a neutral third-party carrying out the certification process.

The Open Group is the owner of the Unix trademark and the Single Unix Specification, which it holds on behalf of the industry. This truth has not been entirely visible in the media, even though it is acknowledged on SCO products and on the company's Web site.

In 1994, Novell, which had earlier acquired the Unix systems business from AT&T, decided to shed everything in its product portfolio not directly related to networking. Rather than sell it as a single entity, however, Novell transferred the rights to the Unix trademark and the specification that subsequently became the Single Unix Specification to The Open Group, then known as the X/Open Co. Simultaneously, Novell sold the Unix System V source code and the product implementation (called Unixware) to SCO.